Sir, – Further to Ruadhán Mac Cormaic’s “Inside the Irish Jury”(Weekend, January 4th), the law on the interviewing of jurors is at present unclear, although asking questions about the content of deliberations is widely presumed to be a common law contempt of court.
While it would not be desirable for jurors to be free to talk to the media, or for empirical research to identify specific cases, the current information vacuum about the functioning of the Irish jury system is unsustainable. We know from recent history that permitting institutions to operate in total secrecy provides fertile ground for impropriety.
Multiple cases of jury misconduct have arisen in England and Wales in recent years.
Unfortunately, the Law Reform Commission’s recommendation that certain types of empirical research should be permitted also specifically excluded “disclosure of the deliberative process of a specific juror or jury”. To exclude the crucial deliberation stage from properly regulated academic research, the results of which could be anonymised, would be a mistake.
This has been recognised by the Law Commission of England and Wales, which in December recommended that English law be changed to permit deliberation research, subject to appropriate safeguards. – Yours, etc,
MARK COEN,
Law School,
Durham University,
Stockton Road,
Durham,
England.